Final Destination
This article is about the first film in the series. For information about the series as a whole, see Final Destination (series). For the 2009 film, see The Final Destination. Final Destination was released in the year 2000, it was the first of four films in the series, it was a film with a poor budget, and also recieved a poor reception overall. But it did still attract fans to the series, and a lot of work went into upping the quality for the sequel. Plot Alex Browning an average High School student, is going on a field trip to Paris. He is feeling nervous before the flight after getting numerous feelings that something bad is going to happen. He gets on the plane, and as it takes off, there is a lot of turbulence, suddenly there is an explosion, which leads to him and all his friends dying. His 'death' snaps him back into reality, where he realizes he has just had a premonition of the death of all his class, and other passengers. He frantically tries to get off the plane, this starts a scuffle in the isle. This leads to six students being thrown off the plane, one teacher also accompanies them. Whilst they sit in the airport trying to calm Alex down, they witness the plane blow up just as Alex predicted. Then his best friend Tod Waggner is strangled in his bathtub but his death is deemed a suicide and Terry Chaney gets hit by a bus. Alex gets the idea that death had a design, and worked out the order the others were going to die. He works out that Valerie Lewton his teacher is the next to die, he goes to try and save her, thus messing up deaths design and skipping Ms. Lewton. But he fails and leaves the place looking like he murdered her. He and the rest of the survivors Carter Horton, Billy Hitchcock, and Clear Rivers discuss what they are going to do, this is when Billy dies. Alex goes into hiding from the police, when he realizes he is the last in line, and to save Clear and Carter, he must sacrifice himself, as this would mess up deaths design. He does this but doesn't die. Sometime later, the surviving three can be seen in Paris, but just as the film ends, a large sign is about to fall on Carter, before it does, the credits roll. Alternate Ending In the alternate ending, Alex and Clear have sex on the beach, resulting in Clear's pregnancy. Later, when Alex rescues Clear, the wire electrocutes him and burns him to death. Nine months later, she gives birth to a baby boy named Alex, named after his deceased father, saving her and Carter from Death. At the end, Clear carries Alex Jr. and reunites with Carter at the Flight 180 memorial. Clear states that they only won the chance of a "full life". A gust of wind, blows a leaf off a tree and the leaf covers the camera and then the credits roll. Cast Trivia *The filmmakers originally had an ending in which Alex grabs the cable that lies on Clear's car, Alex catches fire and dies. Then Clear gets her baby and Carter survives. The test audience didn't like this, so the filmmakers shot another ending in which Alex is decapitated by a crashing police helicopter. But again, the test audience didn't like the fact that Alex dies, so they shot the finish with the billboard, which took 6 days to film and cost nearly $2,000,000. *At least one or two tragedies or accidents in each of the three final Destination films are based on real life events. In this movie, Flight 180 was based on Trans World Flight 800, which also crashed right after takeoff, leaving JFK for Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport, and both were carrying a group of students going to Paris on a class trip. *Something to watch for, especially considering John Denver died in a plane crash. Whenever someone's about to die, listen for the song "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver to play. The obvious one is when Ms. Lewton is about to die and she plays her mother's John Denver record. Next, after Todd shaves and cuts himself, he plugs in the radio and you think he's going to get electrocuted. What do you suppose is playing for about 3 seconds? At the beginning, when Alex is having the nightmare, he and Todd go to the bathroom, guess what's playing on the loudspeaker. Also at the end, when they are in France, the man playing the guitar is singing "Rocky Mountain High" in French. *When Alex's air ticket is torn at the checking desk before he boards 180 if you look at the ticket very closely there is a piece of text saying,'Your Final Flight'. *In the airport after the plane explodes, it shows Terry with a terrified look on her face. Right behind her is a picture of a bus, which is the way she would die later in the movie. Also, at Ms. Lewton's house, when she is standing in front of her computer, behind her is a stained glass window with a picture of a knife, which is how she would later die. *The sign that falls down at the end is "180", which was the number for their flight. *Todd foreshadows his own death - in Alex's vision he mimes strangling himself (when he's trying to stop Alex changing seats), putting an imaginary rope around his own neck and pulling it tight... *This is more of something to notice, but when the students are walking onto the aeroplane Alex looks at the scrapes on the door of the plane, then he looks down through the gap and a baggage car passes underneath. Look at the numbers on top of the car...they read 666, unless you want to be picky then its 999 which wouldn't mean anything. *The German dub of Final Destination doesn't change Tod's name. "Tod" means "Death" in German. *When Carter is driving to "take control" the train Alex sees out his window is number 747, which is the type of plane that blew up. *In the very beginning of the movie you see many different shots of Alex's room, in one shot you see the shadow of a little figure hanging by the neck foreshadowing Todd's death. *James Wong, the director for this movie, was also a writer/producer/director for the X-Files TV show. The script for this movie was based on an episode he wrote that was never used for the X-Files show. Glitches *At the memorial service the principal says that it's been 39 days since 39 loved ones had died. But there were 40 students on the plane and 4 chaperones, making the total 44. Now 7 people got off the plane which means 37 people related to that memorial service actually died, not 39. Two pilots would make up the numbers, but there would be flight crew too, which still leaves the numbers off. *The scene where Clear is in the garage, she puts the car in drive, but somehow reverses the car through the garage door. *The teens are traveling presumably along the Meadowbrook or Wantaugh parkways, when the enter Jones Beach. They see a sign just before the beach entrance that says "New York: 93 miles", when Jones Beach is less than 15 miles from NYC limits and approximately 25-30 miles from Manhattan. *Right before Terry is hit by the bus, there are puddles and wet patches all over the road and path. But when the bus actually makes contact with Terri, they all instantly disappear. *At the end when Clear is in the car, trying to get away, she knocks over a can of turpentine. When you look at the can again it has changed the way in which it fell. *After Mrs. Lewton closes the kettle lid, it is open in the next shot. *At the start when you see Alex, Tod and co. walking down the walkway to the plane you can see that their heads are almost touching the ceiling. You can tell it was shortened to make the path longer for the appropriate sequence and then after when they reach the turning the ceiling is much higher. *People sitting beside Alex disappear at the funeral. *The pump removed from Tod's neck, in the morgue, reappears. *In the scene where Alex is watching the TV on how the plane exploded, look at the illustration shown. Then compare it with the illustration that appears on Alex's computer screen. The positions of the explosions shown are different. *When Alex is in the cabin opening the can the pull tab is already lifted up making it easier to open because he is wearing gloves. It was already up when he took the wrapper off. *When Billy is explaining about being in the bathroom, not on the plane, he has his head in the door's path. Camera cuts and he puts his head back in the path, blocking the door. *The match Mrs. Lewton lights is obviously way too long for the matchbox. *The wheels of the police car screech when there's gravel on the street. Novelization Category: Films Category: Final Destination